Minister, it's a tremendous pleasure to see you and to have you come to Canada, and to speak about Moldova. It's an amazing situation.
Today the world talks about hybrid warfare. We realize that for the North Atlantic alliance, Russia poses the most significant of threats.
You've been living all of this for over a quarter of a century. These were the testing grounds in many ways for future exploits of the Kremlin, and it's fascinating that you have survived. I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I offer you our congratulations on being able to maintain a democratic, rule of law, free enterprise state, of course with tremendous difficulty, and not without flaws. However, when you compare the situation in Moldova with the current situation in Transnistria, Moldova has democratic values, and Transnistria is a gangster state. Moldova has the rule of law. In Transnistria, the judiciary is used as a weapon of suppression.
You talked about the entrepreneurship in Moldova. Transnistria is a black hole in Europe. With the laundering through Transnistrian banks of monies, the business of drug trafficking in Europe, the business of arms trafficking, and worse, sexual trafficking, human trafficking, Transnistria has become a black hole on the European continent when it comes to these particular issues.
How can we further strengthen the borders around Moldova—because you spoke of that—but also, how can we strengthen the sectors to prevent the money laundering of this gangster state?